Global Climate Talks Put Japan on the Hot Seat

TOKYO, Oct. 7—Open the trunk of almost any Tokyo taxi and you'll find a tank of clean-burning liquid propane gas. City bus drivers turn off their engines when they stop for a red light. Stand in downtown Tokyo in the middle of the night and look up: Chances are you'll see stars.

Two months before a global climate conference in Kyoto, environmentalists say Japan is not taking global warming seriously and that its proposals to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are a joke. But Japan says the criticism is unfair, noting that it has already done more than most industrialized countries to eliminate the gases blamed for global warming.

Japan now finds itself in the curious position of having one of the industrialized world's best track records on environmental issues, but at the same time it is being pilloried by environmentalists. Japan has staked much prestige on hosting the December conference in Kyoto, where the world's attention will be focused as never before on global climate changes. Now critics are accusing Japan of being so soft on global warming that it does not deserve to host the conference.

"That is not fair," said Kiyotaka Akasaka, a top official involved in planning the conference. "The situation of each participant is different. I am not saying there is no room to do more, but Japan has already gone through years of hard effort."

On Monday, Japan called on the world's industrial nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5 percent from their 1990 levels by 2012. Under the Japanese formula, it and such countries as the United States could cut their emissions by as little as 2.5 percent. The European Union has proposed a 15 percent reduction, and the United States is expected to announce its plan later this month.

The verbal beating Japan is taking underscores the complexity of trying to arrive at a world consensus on global warming. More than 150 nations will attend the conference, each bringing different economic, political and environmental conditions and goals to the table.

Compounding the problem is that some people still do not believe global warming is a serious threat. So, getting nations as diverse as Russia and the Pacific island of Tuvalu to agree on exactly what should be done about it is a mammoth undertaking -- like finding one shoe to fit 150 different feet.

Japan now finds itself on the hot seat. As conference host, its position is high-profile; the European Union says Japan's proposal is recklessly conservative, while Australia, a big exporter of coal and natural gas, says it is too aggressive.

"Somehow we have got to find a compromise," Akasaka said.

Most analysts say there is fact and fiction in Japan's contention that it has been so diligent in controlling emissions that further cuts would be extremely difficult.

Since the oil shocks of the 1970s, Japan has spent massive amounts of money to make its industry and automobiles cleaner and more efficient. Japan has vastly reduced the air pollution that made Tokyo an environmental nightmare in the 1970s.

Police officers used to wear masks in the streets to protect them from the dirty air. Today, Tokyo is one of the cleanest cities in Asia, despite a huge industrial base and more than 30 million residents.

Japanese officials say it is unfair to ask Japan now to make the same cuts in emissions as, for example, Germany. The baseline year for emissions standards is 1990, a year in which Japan's emissions were relatively low because of new technology added in the 1980s. But Germany was just absorbing East Germany's belching Soviet-style factories that year, so reducing such high levels of emissions would be far easier, the Japanese argue.

Still, many analysts say Japan could make far deeper cuts than it has proposed, but that Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto lacks the political will to do so. In a sluggish economy, Hashimoto seems unwilling to take on a powerful industrial lobby that does not want to sacrifice productivity in the name of curbing global warming.

"Japan's commitment to these things has always been based on money, and when the money dries up, so does the commitment," said Ronald A. Morse, an American environmental specialist who teaches at Japan's Reitaku University.

Since Japan's economy has slowed down, Morse said, "I just don't think the Japanese are as keen about the environment as they used to be."

Hashimoto is in a tough spot. He wants Japan to be seen as an environmental leader, and he wants to enhance his own standing on the world stage by hosting a successful conference in Kyoto. But Japan's economy is not as strong as it was, and he cannot afford to do anything that would further weaken it.

Environmentalists argue that the Japanese once again could muster the spirit they showed when they focused on the environment in the 1970s.

After the first oil shock in 1973, Japan ordered convenience stores shut down at night, banned 24-hour gas stations and turned off lights on highways and some city streets. Government officials started showing up in public wearing open-neck suits with short sleeves, to encourage people to save energy on air-conditioning.

Japan built more than 50 nuclear power reactors, sharply reducing its reliance on coal and oil. The country developed highly efficient new scrubbers for its industrial smokestacks, dramatically reducing emissions. With gasoline prices skyrocketing, Japan pioneered the manufacturing of cars with high fuel efficiency. Those cars cracked the American market by the late 1970s and made a fortune for Japan's automakers.

But the new prosperity brought complacency, critics say. Many Japanese now equate a desirable lifestyle with energy consumption. Recreational vehicles and vans are extremely popular here, even though they use a lot of gasoline. Gadgets ranging from remote controls to digital toilets to the fax machines found in virtually every Japanese home greatly increase Japan's electricity consumption, putting more pressure on power plants.